Five Lives Sano and Kazu Never Lived
by shotamadness
Summary: Five lives Sano Yasuyoshi and Mikura Kazuma might have lived, but didn't. Sano/Kazu AU.
1. first: reeeeepo maaaaaan

a/n: each AU is based either directly or vaguely on another fandom. IT IS A GUESSING GAME, see if you can figure it out. 8D

**_first life – out of the night, from the mist steps a figure_**

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"Collect on the Mikura account," his orders had said. Sano is nothing if not efficient, and is outside his target's rundown apartment complex within the hour. The boy is sitting on the front steps, staring off into space, but he raises his head when Sano approaches. His eyes hold no trace of fear.

"You're here for my heart," Mikura Kazuma says flatly.

It isn't a question. Sano nods. "Thought so." Mikura gets to his feet, dusting off his jeans. Sano waits for the inevitable – the pleading, crying, desperation – but it doesn't come. Mikura stares hard at him, as if sizing him up. Then he sighs.

"I'm not going to run," he says. "So can you at least take the stupid helmet off?"

Sano is quiet for a long moment. Then, slowly and deliberately, he removes his mask. And before he can even adjust to the dim glow of the streetlight, Mikura has crossed the space between them, leaned up, and pressed his lips to Sano's. Sano is surprised to find himself kissing back.

A delicious shudder runs through Mikura's body when Sano makes the first incision, and he bites down hard on Sano's leather-clad shoulder, steeling himself against the pain. The second leaves him _writhing_ in agony, and by the fifth he can only cling to Sano, clutching weakly at his arms.

Not once does he let a sound escape his throat.

He doesn't even scream when Sano pulls the perfectly unmarked, still-beating organ from his chest.


	2. second: in reality, we call the shots

**_second life – hey, it was his first time, I wanted to scare him_**

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The thing had taken on the appearance of a young man, skinny and underfed and half-naked, a network of strange markings winding around its torso. It crouched there in the center of the circle and glared up at him, slitted cat's eyes glinting angrily in the flickering glow of the candles, but it remained still, not daring to venture near the edge of the chalk outline.

"Yasuyoshi," his master said, and only then did Sano realize he'd been staring. "This is hardly your first summoning, and yet you're so mesmerized. Is something wrong?" Spitfire didn't even bother to conceal the note of fond amusement in his voice.

"I'm fine, sir," Sano replied quietly, and didn't take his eyes from the form in the circle.

The room was silent for a moment, punctuated only by the faint hiss as one of the candles burnt itself down and went out. And then the demon let out a short howl of irritation. "Stop _looking_ at me like that!" it growled, baring its teeth at Sano.

Sano blinked. "I... didn't charge you to speak yet, did I?" he asked, legitimately confused.

"Well, _one_ of us had to say something, and it didn't look like you were going to any time soon!" the demon snapped. "Not when you were busy staring at me like you wanted to tie me up and-"

"I CHARGE YOU TO STOP TALKING," Sano said loudly.

"SAY YOUR RIGHT WORDS AND MAYBE I WILL," it shrieked back. "How are you gonna bind me to your service–" (_or anything else_, Sano's traitorous brain helpfully supplied) "–if you can't even get your dumb spells right, _master_?" The thing's every syllable was laced with a contemptuous mockery of subservience. Sano looked helplessly at his own master.

Spitfire just smiled.


	3. third: and the world shines for me today

**_third life – in xanadu did kubla khan

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He's been watching the boy every day. And Sano knows, he _knows_ how creepy that sounds and he does it anyway.

The boy passes Sano's apartment every afternoon at 4:11. And every afternoon at 4:11, Sano just happens to be near the window that faces the street, just to catch a glance. (Spitfire would have laughed himself silly and told Sano to ask the kid out already, but Spitfire didn't need to know.)

It's as if a dam has burst inside of him. All the months of artist's block, the crumpled failures and the frustrated sleepless nights staring at a blank canvas, the combini dinners and barely paid rent checks, gone from his mind. Gone, and replaced with the solid curve of the boy's shoulders, the tense in the muscles of his legs just before he makes the leap from one rooftop to the next. Sano is captivated by the twist of the boy's hips when he nearly falls, landing safe at the last moment, by the teasing glimpses of throat and collarbone under the unbuttoned collar of his uniform shirt and the gleam of his A-Ts as they catch the sunlight. His sketchbooks fill up faster than ever as Sano tries to capture that breathtaking, unrestrained freedom, to pin it to the paper with graphite and charcoal.

It's only when he goes to scrounge up something in the kitchenette and finds nothing that Sano realizes he hasn't left his apartment in nearly two weeks. And it's just his luck that he doesn't check the time before stepping out the door, onto the street, and right into his muse.

"Watch where you're going!" the boy yells, not looking back.

And before he can stop himself, Sano reaches out and catches the boy by one slender wrist. "Wait."

The boy spins around to face him. "Who the hell," he starts, then scowls as realization dawns. "You're the guy who's been watching me!"

Well. He's got Sano there. "I just want to know your name," Sano tells him, and thinks he does a pretty good job of sounding suave and casual instead of mildly desperate.

The boy looks at him for what feels like an hour, a strange suspicion flashing in his eyes. "Kazuma," he says finally. "Kazu."

"Kazu," Sano repeats, liking the way the name tastes on his tongue, wondering idly if the boy who possesses it tastes just as good. As if hearing his thoughts, Kazu's irritated frown deepens and he shakes his arm free of Sano's grip.

"Pervert," he says, without any real heat, and then: "See you around, Sano."

And with a flash of those skates, he's gone, and only then does Sano realize that he never gave Kazu his name.


End file.
